GALLERY

What started as a joke between Marines in a San Diego recovery room in the spring ended Sunday, more than 4,000 miles later in Virginia, as double amputee Toran Gaal hand-cranked his bike past the Marine Corps Memorial, through a row of American flags into the arms of his wife and children for the first time in two months.

Many Americans assumed the Confederate flag was retired for good after governors in South Carolina and Alabama removed it from their statehouses this summer and presidential candidates from both parties declared it too divisive for official display.

Less than a week ago, Afghanistan seemed to be edging toward peace. Taliban insurgent leaders were preparing to attend a second round of negotiations with Afghan officials, prodded by Pakistani authorities amid a thaw in their long-chilly relations with Kabul, and reinforced by a supportive recent statement from the supreme Taliban leader, Mohammed Omar.

GALLERY

What started as a joke between Marines in a San Diego recovery room in the spring ended Sunday, more than 4,000 miles later in Virginia, as double amputee Toran Gaal hand-cranked his bike past the Marine Corps Memorial, through a row of American flags into the arms of his wife and children for the first time in two months.

Several teams of veterans have been in the Uwharrie National Forest (UNF) since Thursday looking for Michael Kirkpatrick, a missing veteran from Fayetteville. Kirkpatrick, 29, is a combat veteran of the Iraq war and suffers from PTSD.

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ANALYSIS

While the United States and its allies easily ejected Iraq from Kuwait within seven months of the Aug. 2, 1990, invasion, Bush's line in the sand has continued onward in an almost Biblical fashion, accompanied by plenty of pre-modern horrors.

Russia’s ambitious plan to revamp its navy, highlighted last week in a visit by President Vladimir Putin to the Kaliningrad exclave on the Baltic Sea, faces new hurdles in the form of economic sanctions imposed for Moscow’s interference in Ukraine.

AP headlines

The Marine Corps on Friday declared the first F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets operational, marking a milestone for a high-tech aircraft that has been in development for years and been branded the most expensive Pentagon acquisition program in history.

Military commanders at stateside installations can authorize more troops to carry firearms, but few changes have been made as Pentagon officials review policies in the wake of an attack that killed five servicemembers in Chattanooga, Tenn.

In the fog of battle and then in the lean decades after the Korean War, South Korea’s authoritarian government squelched dissension and at times branded critics as communists. But in several recent legal cases, South Koreans have successfully held the government responsible for wartime deaths and other actions undertaken in the name of national security.

Researchers are nearing approval by the Food and Drug Administration for a small device that allows trauma medics to accurately monitor the rate at which a bleeding patient will reach the point when the body can no longer offset blood loss, when shock sets in and death soon follows.

Analysis

The new Taliban leadership that has emerged since the death of the group’s revered leader is unlikely to change course either on the battlefield or in approaching nascent peace talks, analysts predicted Friday.

An experimental Ebola vaccine tested on thousands of people in Guinea seems to work and might help shut down the waning epidemic in West Africa, according to interim results from a study published Friday.

It may be the nation's youngest government agency, but it hasn't been quiet. The agency has extracted billions in settlements from the big banks, and has acted to improve enforcement and the power of the Military Lending Act. So what's next?

A contingent of Navy SEALs arrived here Thursday morning, halfway through a grueling 95-mile trek from the summit of Mount Washington to the shores of Sebago Lake in Casco on one of the hottest days this summer. Their mission? To bring sunshine into the lives of children with life-threatening illnesses in the second annual "SEALs for Sunshine" fundraiser.

GALLERY

Perhaps in response to President Vladimir Putin's increasingly militaristic policies, The Russian Army Store opened earlier this summer in Moscow as an upmarket venue selling a wide range of patriotic goods - from mugs with Putin's portrait to limited-edition clothing like a leather jacket costing over $1,500.